The Vampire Diaries: “The Hybrid” – When Vamps & Wolves Collide!

Welcome back fans of The Vampire Diaries! I do not know about all of you, but last Thursday’s episode, “The Hybrid,” was beyond awesome! I cannot remember any episode of the past seasons having the same feel as this newest episode. “The Hybrid” was fast paced, intense, full of plot, and one of the goriest yet. I was enthralled by all the non-stop action scenes. This past episode also played to both sides of The Vampire Diaries fandom “teams” for Stelena (those wanting Stefan and Elena together) and Delena (those wanting Damon and Elena together.)

The second episode of the season, titled “The Hybrid,” opened with a scene set at the Salvatore Mansion in Mystic Falls. A distraught Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder) was shown throwing away all of his newspaper clippings that contained leads and the maps he had been collecting while tracking down his brother’s, Stefan Salvatore (Paul Wesley), possible location. Stefan had been missing since teaming up with Klaus (Joseph Morgan), The Original, in a mercy-deal that saved Damon’s life.  Damon seemed sincerely upset over the death of his semi-quasi girlfriend, Andie Star (Dawn Olivieri). I believed Damon was disappointed in Stefan for turning to the dark side. I am sure when Stefan murdered Andie that Damon was blindsided by this action. It was a move I would have never expected given the previous sweet-nature of Stefan.

Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev) came to visit Damon to let him know that Stefan called anonymously on her birthday. As you can see in the picture above, this news certainly surprised Damon. I loved Damon’s crazy-eye expression he made that he has become well known for on the show. Elena had the phone call traced back to the Tennessee area and she was ready to set off for Stefan right then and there. Damon informed Elena he had already decided to give up on trying to save Stefan any longer. Elena tried to convince Damon that Stefan was still “Stefan” otherwise he would not have called her. She had not given up hope for Stefan just yet.

This news of Stefan’s where-bouts brought us viewers down south to the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. Klaus and Stefan had set off to this area after they received information from the werewolf Ray Sutton (David Gallagher). After being tortured, Ray leaked the location of where his werewolf pack camped out.

Stefan walked with the captured and unconscious Ray slung over his shoulder. As part of the deal with Klaus, Stefan ended up doing a lot of this type grunt work for him. The duo finally found the wolf clan’s hidden campsite. It appeared to be a group of maybe 20 – 30 werewolves that were a part of Ray’s pack. The werewolves noticed something was not right and sensed that Stefan and Klaus were not innocent hikers. I believed maybe the weres could smell that they were vampires from the reactions on their face.

Stefan threw Ray down to the ground. One of the female weres broke the silence and asked Stefan, “Who are you?” Klaus, in his grandiose bravado, interjected to the girl she had asked the wrong person. He said his name and his infamy spoke for itself as the werewolves instantly knew he was “The Hybrid.”

Klaus’ ego has been a fun part of his character to watch develop and one of my favorite things about him. His arrogance has made way for so many entertaining one-liners from him, including in the end of this scene when he said, “You’ve heard of me. Fantastic.”, and then smiled that charming yet evil smile.

Continuing back to the woods though, now we finally found out why Klaus had searched out this large group of weres. He had wanted to start making more of himself, as in, making more half-vampire, half-werewolves. When he broke the Sun and Moon curse last season, it gave him the ability to create hybrids. Here was the twist; Klaus still does not know he did not really kill the doppelganger, our Elena, so these powers did not actually exist.

Ray had become the first victim of Klaus’ hybrid experiments. Ray was fed vampire blood and killed. All he needed to do then was to feed from a human to finish the transformation. Luckily for Klaus, there was a human amongst the were-clan. Klaus began to “change” all of the werewolves in the clan to create a personal collection of hybrids.

At this point, Stefan began to question Klaus’ intentions of needing so many hybrids. “Who are you fighting?,” Stefan asked. Klaus responded by saying that just because he had no one to fight, it did not mean he should not make an army. He said that he was making the army to avoid any future conflict and to establish himself as a supernatural powerhouse. Stefan then asked why Klaus insisted on keeping him around then, to which Klaus responded that he would reveal this information when he felt Stefan needed to hear it. The conversation was interrupted by Ray’s shaking and blood pouring from his eyes. It was aware to Stefan and Klaus that something was not quite right with the hybrid transformation. Distracted by one of the other weres, Ray bit Stefan and has escaped. This bite is doomed to kill Stefan and the only cure is Klaus’ blood. Klaus has only agreed to save Stefan if he recaptures Ray.

You have to give props to The Vampire Diaries costume and make-up department. I was very impressed with how realistic the blood and wounds looked. I have watched a ton of vampire-type genre shows and movies, but was especially blown away with how creepy the vamps and hybrids looked in this episode. Another note, I too wondered what Klaus needs Stefan for in his plans. Klaus has already shown he is the strongest supe the show has ever seen. Why would he even deal with Stefan, whom is a relatively young vampire in comparison?

Back in Mystic Falls, another crazy event began to unfold with the Lockwood Family. After she realized that her son, Tyler Lockwood (Michael Trevino), had a one night stand with Caroline Forbes (Candice Accola), Carol Lockwood (Susan Walters) began to worry that her son had been turned into a vampire as well. So in a sort of test, Carol slipped vervain (an herb which is deadly to vampires) into Tyler’s morning coffee to see if he would have a volatile reaction. As Tyler entered the kitchen and took a sip of his vervain-spiked coffee, Carol looked at her son with dread. She was fully prepared for the negative reaction that would indicate that her son was, in fact, a vampire. But when Tyler drank the coffee and nothing happened, besides mentioning just that it tasted a little strange, she breathed a sigh of relief. Carol then proceeded to lecture her son about spending time with Caroline, intimating to him that she was a bad influence and someone that he should not spend time with.

Carol Lockwood sure had changed a lot since her perfect “Stepford Wife” persona that viewers saw of her in previous seasons. She was already drinking liquor first thing in the morning, with not even a chaser or mixer! I could not get over Carol telling Tyler that Caroline was a prostitute. I was even more surprised when Tyler defended Caroline’s reputation to his mother. Our town playboy had morals now?! This showed that Tyler really cared for Caroline.

When Tyler left the house for the day, his mother, Carol quickly picked up her phone and made a call to some mystery man referred to only as Bill (Jack Coleman). Carol Lockwood proceeded to tell Bill that she had herself in, “a bit of a vampire situation,” with Caroline and needed Bill’s help to deal with it. All that could be gathered at this point was that Bill was somehow connected to the Founder’s Council.

Meanwhile at the Mystic Grill, Tyler was waiting for Caroline to meet him there and was unaware that his mother had shot and captured her the night before. Tyler was confronted by Matt Donovan (Zach Roerig), Caroline’s ex-boyfriend, who seemed jealous of her involvement with Tyler. In the middle of the confrontation, Tyler mentioned the odd taste of his coffee at home and again now in his cup of joe at the Mystic Grill. Matt revealed to Tyler that the foreign taste was vervain. Shocked, Tyler then realized that his mother was aware of the supernatural forces in Mystic Falls.

Back at the Lockwood residence, Carol Lockwood continued her conversation with Bill, expressing guilt over that the vampire they sought to eliminate was Caroline, the sweet girl that Carol could “remember when she was born.” Bill dismissed Carol’s concerns and bluntly stated that Caroline was a vampire and therefore needed to be killed.

Back to the other side of town, Elena approached Tyler to get information about werewolves. Tyler told her that werewolves typically moved in packs and that you could find them in secluded areas away from main populations. When Elena thanked Tyler for the information, he told her that he felt like he needed to help because he was the one who gave Damon the werewolf bite that nearly killed him. Before the two parted ways, he asked Elena if she had seen Caroline at all. Elena responded that she had not seen her. This made Tyler start to worry about Caroline even more.

After talking to Tyler, Elena tried to convince family friend, Alaric Saltzman (Matt Davis) to come with her to the Smoky Mountains, Stefan’s last known location, so that he could help her find him. Elena begged Alaric to help her, stating that she knew that Stefan could be saved if they managed to find him before the full moon had risen. Although Alaric warned Elena to stay out of it, saying that she should just let Damon deal with it; he eventually gave up and agreed to accompany Elena to the mountains against his better judgment.

There was a lot happening at the Mystic Grill this episode. While Jeremy Gilbert (Steven R. McQueen) was visiting the restaurant, he cornered his friend and coworker, Matt. The previous night, Matt had heard Jeremy say the name of his dead sister, Vicki Donovan (Kayla Ewell), and he wanted to know why he said her name. The two begin to talk and eventually Jeremy confided in Matt that ever since he was brought back to life with the magic of his sorceress girlfriend, Bonnie Bennett (Kat Graham), he had been seeing unusual things. After some prodding, Jeremy revealed to Matt that he had been seeing visions of Vicki, despite the fact that she was dead. At this point, Jeremy said to Matt that he wanted to deal with this between the two of them and did not want to involve Bonnie.

Matt and Jeremy proceeded to the Donovan household to retrieve a personal item of Vicki’s so that they could strengthen the bond between her and Jeremy, in the hopes it would cause her to show herself once again. Matt found an old picture of them at Christmas. It reminded him of when times were happier. Matt placed the picture of him and his sister face down and told Jeremy to leave. Matt did not want to be involved with this anymore, because it was just too painful for him to recall the memories of his dead sister and the troubled times that she went through preceding her death. After Jeremy left, Matt turned around and saw that the picture that he had placed face down was somehow standing. Thinking that perhaps it could have been the ghost of his sister that made the picture stand up again, Matt started to realize contacting Vicki seemed like something he should do.

Later than night, Matt had made up his mind that he wanted to help Jeremy contact the ghost of his sister to find out why she was appearing to him. Matt went over to Jeremy’s house and apologized to him for getting upset. Matt had brought Jeremy beer as a peace-offering. Matt handed off some of the personal items of Vicki’s to Jeremy. Then, Matt said that while he knew that a lot of people did not “get” his sister, he knew that Jeremy did. This was what inspired Matt to trust Jeremy.

Matt and Jeremy discussed that neither one of them could remember the circumstances surrounding Vicki’s death, because they were compelled to forget those events. Matt expressed dismay that he could not even remember the last moment he spent with his sister before she became a vampire. Right in the middle of this conversation, Vicki suddenly appeared and acknowledged not only Jeremy, but her brother too! Vicki said his name in a small, surprised voice. Matt was unable to see or hear Vicki, but Jeremy could.

“How can I help,” Jeremy said to Vicki, who responded to him in a hopeful tone that she “can come back.”  As Vicki said those words to Jeremy, a window in the room smashed to pieces and Vicki was gone. Then another ghost appeared to Jeremy, the ghost of Anna (Malese Jow)! She had only one message for Jeremy: “Don’t trust Vicki.” Which ghost should Jeremy trust? Are the girls even ghosts or something more sinister? I would think it is time for Jeremy to finally get Bonnie involved with this situation.

While all of this was happening, Alaric and Elena were trekking through the woods of Tennessee. As the two made friendly banter; Elena teased Alaric over his “boy scout” skills, to which Alaric sarcastically replied, “We aren’t exactly bird watching.” Alaric showed Elena all of the weapons that he brought with him to use against Klaus, which prompted Elena to give Alaric the Gilbert family eternity ring, because the ring would not work on her. Elena was immune to the ring’s powers being as she is a supernatural “doppelganger.” Right at that moment, Damon appeared out of nowhere, and threw Elena into the lake. Alaric filled Elena in that he had enlisted Damon’s help, stating that they would need him if they ran into a wolf pack.

The bromance between Damon and Alaric has continued to get better and better. I have enjoyed seeing the two of them become friends. I cracked up earlier in the episode when Alaric automatically assumed it was Damon as his front door. They really have made the best team together. Oh and this lake scene! This had to be the funniest thing Damon has ever done! The look Elena made was completely priceless! Did you happen to have noticed she did not even get upset about being thrown in to the water, but just over the fact Damon was there?

Damon fished Elena out of the water and told her to stop hunting for Stefan and to go home. Damon and Alaric tell her that it was dangerous for her to hunt Klaus, because Klaus thought she was dead. Elena refused to give up before the full moon, because she truly loved Stefan and believed that he could still be saved. Even though obviously annoyed, Damon decided to go along with Elena’s crazy plan and they all began off on the search for Stefan.

Eventually the three of them encountered Ray in the woods, who had escaped from the wolf pack. Damon smashed a wolfsbane grenade in Ray’s face leaving him unable to fight back. Ray is tied to a tree. While they attempted to pump information from Ray, he began to start his werewolf transformation. The trio became aware that they needed to get out of the woods now before all the werewolves supes in the woods turned were. Elena, Damon, and Alaric left Ray still bound and began their escape.

Damon fought off Ray while Elena and Alaric ran for their lives. Ray pinned Damon and has quickly overpowered him. As Damon tried to escape Ray’s hold, Stefan came in at the last moment and saved Damon from being killed by ripping out Ray’s heart. After saving his brother, Stefan told Damon to leave and made him promise to keep Elena out of danger. How many times has Stefan saved Damon’s life now? This scene suggested maybe Stefan does have hope to be the vampire he once was. It seemed to convince Damon at the very least.

Damon met back up with Elena and Alaric and they load up in the SUV to return home. Elena looked visibly disappointed that her plan to save Stefan failed and looked out the window in a last attempt of finding him. She squinted at a spot overlooking the vechicle, but when her eyes finally focused, there was nothing there. Perhaps she had a intuitive feeling to have looked at that exact spot, because in fact, Stefan had been standing there and moved out of her glance. Stefan moved away from her sight more than likely on purpose, despite that from the look in his eyes you could tell he longed for Elena.

Stefan returned back to the werewolf campground only to find all the hybrids have died. Klaus was very angry and did not understand why his hybrids did not survive. By the guilty look on his face, Stefan almost gave it away that he knew why the curse that would have granted Klaus these powers failed. I was still not sure if Klaus suspected Stefan’s knowledge or not, but he healed Stefan none the less. Perhaps Klaus was lonely and has began to see Stefan as his only friend? Forced friendship or not, Stefan was still stuck under Klaus’ demands as “The Hybrid” ended.

The episode wrapped up the trio’s storyline back in Mystic Falls. We are shown that Alaric has agreed to move back into the Gilbert house. Elena headed back to her bedroom only to be surprised by Damon waiting on her there. Damon told Elena that he believed his brother could be saved and apologizes. With the wrong timing as usual, Damon annoyed Elena until she shared she does care about him. This news has softened Damon’s demeanor as he holds Elena close and told her, “I want you to remember the things you felt when he was gone.” He left the room leaving Elena feeling confused, yet hopeful for Stefan’s return.

Returning back to the Lockwood Family dilemma as the episode ended; Tyler returned to his house to confront his mother over the vervain coffee. Tyler told his mother directly, “skip the part where we pretend we don’t know about the vampires in this town.” Carol stated that she spiked his coffee, because she saw how much time he was spending with Caroline. She then threw her son’s glib remark right back at him, “skip the part where we pretend we don’t know she’s one of them.” Tyler attempted to defend Caroline, but was interrupted by his mother who shouted that he “can’t be with her, she’s a monster!” Tyler was taken aback by his mother’s comment and realized then that she had absolutely no idea that he, himself, was a werewolf.

In response to the realization that his mother did not know that he was a werewolf, Tyler took his mom into an underground chamber on their family’s property, where Tyler spent every full moon chained to the ground to prevent himself from hurting anyone while transformed. He explained to his mother about the Lockwood family curse and that the werewolf gene had been passed down to him from his father. As the full moon rose, Tyler locked his mother in a cell in the underground chamber, forcing her to witness his transformation into a werewolf.  “I’m the monster!!” Tyler shouted, as he finished chaining himself to the ground. As he finished restraining himself, Tyler began the final transformation as his mother stood by and watched, screaming in shock, understanding the point that Tyler had been trying to make: if Caroline was a monster, then so was he.

The morning after Tyler’s transformation, he awoke still chained to the ground, his clothes torn by his brutal transformation. He looked over at his mother, who had spent the entire night watching her son’s agonizing transformation into the beast-like wolf. Seeing her son in this light made Carol realize that her views on the supernatural were incorrect and that just because Caroline was a vampire, did not mean that she was a monster. “I’ll take care of it,” she said to Tyler. “I’ll make sure that nothing happens to her.” Shortly after this exchange, Carol once again contacted Bill and attempted to convince him to stop this with Caroline, and vampires in general.  Despite Carol’s pleas,  Bill was not convinced by her argument. He ended the conversation stating the he knew exactly what he had to do and planned on following through until the end.

Closing up, we finally caught a glimpse of Caroline, locked away somewhere and chained to a chair. Hearing footsteps, she began to call out to Mrs. Lockwood, thinking that she had changed her mind and planned on releasing her. However when the figure approaching her opened the door, she saw that it was none other than her father, Bill Forbes. “Daddy?” Caroline said, in a tiny voice, as the man approached her. The screen faded to black leaving us viewers with the horrifying realization of what Bill was willing to do to his own daughter.

The Vampire Diaries continues season three with “The End of the Affair” this Thursday September 29, 2011. We include the preview below for your enjoyment courtesy of The CW!

All of the actors that are mentioned above in this post have clickable links to their personal Twitter accounts if you were curious. I cannot wait til next Thursday for the newest episode of The Vampire Diaries.  Don’t forget! It will come on The CW at 8 PM EST.

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Kimmyxoxo, (Kim)